The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus for reading an image recorded on a color photosensitive material in which silver halide and/or developing silver remains.
In recent years for the purpose of reduction in the treating time as well as the treating cost, there is known a technique in which color image information including developing silver information is photoelectrically read and converted into a digital signal without removal of silver halide and developing silver on the basis of a color image obtained by exposure and Development to thereby obtain a color image on another recording material.
Image information carried by a photosensitive material, however, includes silver image information. Accordingly, a system in which the image information is projected and exposed onto another recording material is unsuitable for an image requiring high image quality, because, it is a matter of course that the silver image information is also exposed at the same time.
On the other hand, in a system in which image information carried by a photosensitive material is photoelectrically read so that an image is obtained by scanning-exposure on another recording material on the basis of the photoelectrically read image information, the image information thus read can be corrected suitably. Accordingly, silver image information can be removed from color image information to obtain a high-quality image.
The present invention is designed to take the aforementioned circumstances into consideration and has an object to provide an image reading apparatus in which the deterioration of image quality caused by a silver image is corrected so that a high-quality image can be obtained even when color image information including silver image information is photoelectrically read.
According to the present invention, there is provided an image reading apparatus for reading an image on a color silver salt photosensitive material in which silver halide and/or developing silver remains, the image reading apparatus comprising: photoelectric converting means for photoelectrically reading the image on the color silver salt photosensitive material in accordance with a spectral sensitivity of the color silver salt photosensitive material, and for sending color outputs; and color correcting means for correcting deterioration of image quality caused by silver halide and/or developing silver with respect to each of the color outputs sent by the photoelectric converting means.
According to such an image reading apparatus, a high-quality image free from the influence of the silver image can be obtained because color correction is applied to the image information read by the photoelectric converting means so that deterioration caused by the silver image is corrected by the color correcting means.
As the color correcting means for correcting deterioration caused by the silver image, an inter-color arithmetic operation of subtracting a silver image""s component from each of color outputs of the photoelectric converting means is executed so that a desired color image after cancellation of the silver image""s component can be obtained.
Alternatively, a conversion table on which each of the color outputs of the color image reading means is made to correspond to a silver image""s component contained in the color output may be used to thereby obtain a desired color information after cancellation of the silver image""s component.
Incidentally, color muddiness occurs in the color output including silver image information. Accordingly, color correction is performed to cancel the information of the silver image""s component and to enhance the chroma of the color so that the loss of color chroma caused by the silver image""s component can be compensated.
A material described below may be used as the color silver salt photosensitive material in which silver halide and/or developing silver remains.
That is, in the image reading apparatus of the invention, the color silver salt photosensitive material disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. Hei. 7-234600 may be used, in which the color silver salt photosensitive material includes at least three kinds of photosensitive layers formed on a substrate, each of the photosensitive layers containing at least photosensitive silver halide, a binder, and a non-dispersive color material for emitting a dispersive pigment corresponding or inversely corresponding to silver development, the photosensitive layers being different from one another both in the photosensitive wavelength region and in the hue of the color material after being developed.
Further, in the image reading apparatus of the invention, the color silver salt photosensitive material disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. Hei-7-268045 may be used, in which the color silver salt photosensitive material includes at least three kinds of photosensitive layers on a substrate, each of the photosensitive layers containing at least photosensitive silver halide, binder, and a pigment-donating coupler, the photosensitive layers being different from one another both in the photosensitive wavelength region and in the hue of the pigment formed from the pigment-donating coupler.
The whole or part of an xe2x80x9cimage reading apparatusxe2x80x9d described in JP-A-7-15593 may be used as an apparatus for reading an image on a photosensitive material. This apparatus is designed so that transparent original copy such as a negative film, or the like, is photoelectrically read by a photoelectric converting means such as a CCD, or the like. Further, in the present invention, color correction for canceling the silver image""s component as described above is applied to the image read by the photoelectric converting means.